Florida is set to lose more than 10 percent of its homes by 2100, and five southern states have already lost $7.4 billion in home values.

But one study conducted by biologists at Villanova University offered some hope for the beleaguered region: warmer temperatures encourage the growth of mangroves, which have more complex roots than other wetland plants and can help build soil and protect coasts from storms like hurricanes.

"The study links the growth of individual plants, and particularly their roots, to the survival of an entire ecosystem. The long-term strength of the mangrove effects we identified may determine what the maps of our southeastern coastlines look like in the future," study author and Villanova biologist J. Adam Langley said in a university press release.

The researchers exposed both salt marshes and mangroves to warming chambers and found that higher temperatures doubled the plants' height and increased the transition from salt marsh to mangrove ecosystems.

Plots exposed to warming saw their mangrove cover increase by a factor of six compared with plots left at current temperatures.

Further, the mangroves' elevation increased when exposed to temperatures consistent with projections for future warming, indicating that trees would be able to build soil to keep pace with a rise in sea level.

The expansion of mangroves at KSC could have immediate practical benefits, since National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which provided funding for the study, relies on wetlands and sand dunes to protect its $5.6 billion worth of infrastructure at the center.

However, as warming temperatures expand the range of mangroves, the study's implications could move beyond the Southeast.

It also indicates that some changes caused by climate change could help combat others, if we conserve the ecosystems where those beneficial changes occur.

"Our study provides some evidence that the ongoing reshuffling of species on earth's surface could allow for some adaptation to the same global changes that are causing them," Villanova biologist Samantha K. Chapman said. "Conserving and restoring our coastal wetlands can help humans adapt to climate change."

Sixteen-year-old climate action leader Greta Thunberg stood alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged more than $1 trillion over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet.

In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.

A new study reveals the health risks posed by the making, use and disposal of plastics. Jeffrey Phelps / Getty Images

With eight million metric tons of plastic entering the world's oceans every year, there is growing concern about the proliferation of plastics in the environment. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the full impact of plastic pollution on human health.

But a first-of-its-kind study released Tuesday sets out to change that. The study, Plastic & Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet, is especially groundbreaking because it looks at the health impacts of every stage in the life cycle of plastics, from the extraction of the fossil fuels that make them to their permanence in the environment. While previous studies have focused on particular products, manufacturing processes or moments in the creation and use of plastics, this study shows that plastics pose serious health risks at every stage in their production, use and disposal.